Dawah seminar #1

Notes from “knowing the path to Allah & conveying it to others, series 2011”

21st August 2011 after zuhr

The definition of success (falah) according to Allah and his prophets

The true definition of success is that a person attains happiness, health, pleasure, peace, etc… after which there is no failure. A state which is perpetual, and everlasting. When the prophets came they taught a science of knowledge which was so important which, if we were left to our selves we would never have known. This science of knowledge is “knowing Allah” – how to know and get close to him.
One may ask now, why didn’t the prophets’ teach the sciences of technology etc – as we see how the world has advanced now? The reason is because the knowledge of the technological, scientific fields can be attained by our own research and education. However, we would have never known the knowledge of Allah if he did not send down prophets. This type of knowledge was beyond our capabilities.

2) As a lesson for those who ponder and think – Allah (swt) says that he does not give the value of the dunya even to the weight of the wing of a mosquito.
So we learn that throughout the human history only 4 people had great and wondrous kingdoms. Two were evil and the other two were the prophets of Allah

The two the evil kings were:
1) pharaoh
2) nimrod

Two prophets whom had great wealth and power were:
1) dawud (as)
2) sulaiman (as)

From this we learn Allah (swt) is telling us if the world had any value he would not have given such power and wealth to pharaoh and nimrod or the people of the dunya. – who were both around the time of Ibrahim and musa (as). When we look at the example of the prophets whom had great power we find that they always turned to Allah despite their wealth and power which they had. They understood the nature of this misleading world.

**How to wake up a sleeping person. – a person who is sleeping in terms of preparing for the hereafter**.

-The first step one needs to take is wake up the individual before you give them the instructions of islam. A] The first approach is: before telling the person anything about islam, you must have the best social interaction with the person. – as the prophet (saw) did in Mecca before the message of islam. – [Never mention the dos and donts of islam to a sleeping person as he will only continue to sleep and not even know you spoke to him].
2/3 of the life of the prophet (saw) was just the interaction with good character by the prophet (saw) and no words were used to convey the message.
1/3 of the prophet (saw)’s life was used to convey the message using words, including again, the practice/ character. This will establish the connection between you and the person.
(a person who is calling people to Allah cannot and should not accept money from the people. – especially when they are calling people to Allah and his prophets).
– Approach 2 is: create the thirst in him/her. Leave a seed of concern in their heart ands minds. So that he/she will think about it someday. Then water this seed. Over time it will bare fruit. – talk about the fruits and pleasures of paradise, of the beauty of islam I.e how it has impacted the world on a worldly level etc.

We learn from the incidence of gibrail (as) when he came to take the prophet (saw) to Miraj. He opened the roof of the house of the prophet (saw). From this we lean that before starting or giving dawah, we need to open a person – their mindset, their hearts to the message of islam etc. Once this is done we should then gently wake them up like he (gibrail) did to the prophet. After which he (gibrail) kissed the feet of the prophet (saw). What this tells us is that we must respect whoever we are trying to give dawah to. Do not look down upon them or give up hope on them. Different people will take different times of change. – Be patient.Dawah seminar #1.pdf
Servant of Allah.